InConJunction XL
InConJunction is our original hometown convention here in Indianapolis. Founded in 1981, it had been held continuously for thirty-nine years until last year's convention had to be canceled as a result of the COVID-19 restrictions. As a result, InConJunction XL was held in 2021 rather than 2020. However, it was still held over the traditional Independence Day weekend, July 2-4, 2021, at the Indianapolis Marriott East.
Dealer load-in is on Thursday afternoon, so we headed to the hotel right after lunch in order to get the van parked in one of the parking spots right at the top of the loading dock ramp. Then we went into the hotel and enjoyed the air conditioning while we waited for load-in to actually begin. I did a little writing on a novel project that I'm hoping to push to completion during the slow season.
This year I was in much better shape physically than I had been in 2019, thanks to having treatment for my hypothyroidism, as well as having spent a good bit of the spring digging up several new garden beds and regularly tending my garden. We also had two additional people helping us with the lifting and carrying, which really sped up the process of carrying everything in. As a result, we had everything into the exhibition hall and the hotel cart returned to the dealer control table in less than two hours. I think that's a record for any convention where we aren't allowed to drive right up to our booth and load directly into it.
Then we had to build our structures and get everything loaded into them. At least we were further ahead by the time the expo hall closed for the night and we were chased out (and they actually gave us an extra hour), but there was still a lot of stuff that needed doing. As a result, when we did get home, I spent a good bit of the evening preparing for the next morning, in hopes of being able to get back as soon as the doors opened to continue setup. I also sent a last-minute newsletter out to the Starship Cat mailing list.
Needless to say, the next morning came far too early, as far as I was concerned. We took breakfast bars with us so that we could get there that much faster.
My first order of business was to take another load of empty boxes out to the van, since we had a very limited backspace. Then I built an additional structure for t-shirts, since I'd pulled several boxes of them out of the very back of our warehouse space to help fill out our setup. Then we had a few smaller things to set out to fill out some of the barren places in our displays. However, I didn't take out most of the figurines, since they are so time-consuming to pack at the end of a show and really don't sell all that well. I did set out a few of the larger ones, and if they got some interest I could always get more out later.
We actually were ready early, and as a result I was able to walk around and take a look at some of the other vendors' setups before the doors opened. Because of COVID-19, everything was more spread-out than usual, and Fiberglass Freaks hadn't brought their Batmobile, so it had a very different feel. However, we can hope that by next year things will be getting back to normal again.
When the doors opened, there were only a few people waiting to come in. Of course this is a much smaller convention than the giant anime and comic cons that are our bread and butter, so we had to adjust our expectations accordingly. Even so, the trickle of people was not exactly reassuring.
In the middle of the afternoon the con suite finally opened. Because of the COVID-19 restrictions, they had to put the food in a separate room from the area where people would hang out and eat. Everything was pre-bagged so people weren't handling food from common dishes, and there wasn't quite the variety they used to provide, but at least there was something.
By the time we closed, we had managed to accumulate a few sales. We covered our tables for the night, then went over to the Royal Manticorean Navy (Honorverse fan club) table in the atrium and spent a very quiet hour sitting there just in case someone would come by. Afterward we covered the table and headed home for the evening. I spent some time getting ready, particularly preparing our lunches, and then searched through my files for some notes I knew I'd written two decades earlier. However, I was disappointed to discover that I hadn't actually written down some details I thought I'd established at that time. I jotted down a few notes here and there, but there's still a lot of that 'verse I can't see clearly yet.
On Saturday we headed back to the hotel and got our tables opened for business. We had some sales, but they seemed to come in spurts. As a result, I had a fair amount of time to write on my novel project while waiting for the next customer. Even so, we had enough sales that we were able to get on the second page of the ledger. Considering that we had some conventions in 2019 that had more people but didn't give us enough sales to get off the first page, we were doing fairly well.
After the expo hall closed for the night, we did another round of table-sitting for the Royal Manticorean Navy, but yet again it was so quiet that it seemed like a token effort. Then I ran up to the storage unit to grab some books that someone was interested in. When I got back, I sorted through a few more papers, then wrote a newsletter for the Sailor Yuggoth mailing list, timed to go out Sunday.
At least on Sunday the Expo Hall didn't open until 11AM, so we got an additional hour of sleep. When we did get there, I decided not to spend the setup time looking around. Instead I did a quick inventory of the t-shirt designs that are still in production so I could send orders in to some of our wholesalers.
When the doors opened, we actually got a fair amount of traffic. We had a couple of really huge sales, and a number of medium-sized ones. I got the feeling that, now that people had checked out of the hotel and settled up with the art show, they knew how much money they had left and were actually ready to start spending.
However, we couldn't wait too long to start packing. We wanted to be able to start loading out as soon as humanly possible after the Expo Hall closed, which meant we needed to start tucking away the stuff that wasn't getting much attention fairly early. As the afternoon progressed, we advanced to the things that had received more attention, but were time-consuming to deal with.
As soon as the Expo Hall closed and the big roll-up door at the loading dock was opened, I headed out to the van and started retrieving the boxes I'd stored. Then we started packing the t-shirts, which made our displays look visibly empty. After that it was a matter of taking down all the displays while I carted the books out and got them into the van.
With a decent amount of help, I was actually able to get the van loaded fairly quickly. We put the consignment merchandise in the car so I could take it back to our consignor on Monday. Once we had everything loaded, we said a few final good-byes, and the rest of the family went home in the car while I headed up to the storage unit to unload the merchandise before nightfall. With Tampa Bay Comic Con in three weeks, I wanted to get the van in to the shop as soon as possible for a thorough mechanical checkup, as well as routine preventive maintenance, prior to our upcoming trip to three conventions in three weeks.
Copyright 2021 by Leigh Kimmel
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Last updated July 8, 2021.